It's A Good Day To Be Gay

Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, and Maine are now (as of today) the states in the Union that have legalized same-sex marriage. New Hampshire's legislature just passed a bill that legalizes same-sex marriage; it is as of yet undetermined whether or not Governor John Lynch will sign the bill into law or veto it. He is a democrat, but also a Roman Catholic. However, he has to be feeling enormous pressure right now given the current sweeping victories of same-sex marriage laws in that region. I have confidence that he will sign it into law, effectively making New Hampshire the sixth state to legalize same-sex marriage.

Make no mistake, [we] are winning this battle. We have sat back and taken what mainstream society has deemed us worthy of having for too long; we finally have a new generation of GLBTs and their supporters, and we are not going to be treated like second class citizens anymore. Enough is enough, and the evidence is strong to support the fact that homosexuality is less and less of an issue for everyday people as time moves forward.

*Photo from here. I'm sorry that I do not have the main link source. A friend referred me to the picture itself.

I Knew There Was A 'Popcorn' Button, But...

...I was not aware that they made microwaves with a 'Snake' button. I had the unfortunate, albeit elective, opportunity to watch "Snakes On A Plane" again--yes, again--and I caught a glimpse of this anomaly, and had to rewind it to double check that my eyes did not deceive me. Luckily for me, and my disinterested readers as well, my computer's DVD player comes equipped with screen-capture. Here is what I saw (spoiler alert: the snake explodes):

I guess microwave technology is so intelligent that you only need five simple commands--Snake, Dinner, High, Low, and Warm-- and a Start button. Furthermore, why would the Snake button select a time of 2:10? The goddamn snake exploded after no more than five seconds! The snake bits would just cause the microwave to catch on fire. I wonder if there has been a product recall.

Something That I've Learned As A Bachelor Who Lives Alone

If a bowl falls off your desk and breaks, it's perfectly okay to leave it there broken on the floor.

I Guess The Warm And Sunny Day Had To Be Ruined Somehow

I took the Water Taxi over to Alki last night so I could longboard. I'm sure glad that I caught the 7:10pm Water Taxi going back to Seattle. Otherwise I could have been there for this (which occurred about 7:30pm).

Capitol Hill Molly Moon's Ice Cream

I went this afternoon; I was in and out with a double scoop of Vivace Coffee ice cream in 17 minutes.

Re: Miss California's Response

As you may or may not know, the MISS USA® pageant was held on April 19th in Las Vegas, Nevada. During a round of questioning from randomly selected judges, Miss California Carrie Prejean was asked by celebrity gossip star Perez Hilton whether or not the states (in America) should legalize same-sex marriage. Her response:

"Well I think it's great that Americans are able to choose one or the other. Um, we live in a land that you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage, and, you know what, in my country and in my family I think I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that's how I was raised and that's how I think it should be between a man and woman. Thank you."

First off, I applaud her for stating her actual beliefs under pressure. I do not think people should be coerced to believe in something that you believe. She could have just as easily said she supports it, and not been true to herself; but she didn't, and she can feel good about that. She was righteous at that moment. Now, do I agree with her? Absolutely not, but I am not going to go around wasting my time bitching and moaning about how Miss California used her chance on stage during the MISS USA® pageant to promote bigotry. She didn't. She was asked a question, she answered it. Get over it. Furthermore, Perez Hilton is a douche bag.

The problem I have is with people, like herself, that do not give any substantial explanation as to why same-sex marriage should not be legal, other than "that's how I was raised". It becomes an even bigger problem for me (and others alike) when anti-same-sex marriage advocates use fear and misinformation to obtain their own ends. I cannot believe that we are still arguing about this non-issue. Church and State are separate under the United States Constitution.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."

Prohibiting same-sex marriage, through legal means, is (quite obviously) respecting an establishment of religion(s). Can we make it any simpler?

And here is the new ad, released today, by the National Organization for Marriage:

Thanks for the heads up Slog.

This Is Not Humanity

Matthew Shepard's brutal and disgusting murder was not a hoax. The fact that this woman is an elected official appalls me. How dare you Congresswoman Foxx...how dare you.



Thanks to Slog (via AMERICAblog).

Today Is...

...President Barack Obama's 100th day in office. There are plenty of news sites that are covering this, but here are some to get you started: CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, Newsweek, The Atlantic.

Further Proof That I Was Born Gay

From a personal letter (ca. 2003)*:

"I can remember all of the wonderful times that just you & I have had together. (Like me spilling the coffee on you at the Bittersweet). I remember you playing for hours making all of your little sounds building throwing tossing dismantling of things. You would play & all of a sudden you would stop run over to wherever I was & give me a hug pat my butt leg or shoulder, grit your teeth & then go back to your playing.

"There isn't much of anything I forgot about you & watching you grow from this little boy with hair that stood straight up dressed in your sisters clothes. I remember your temper tantrums. I remember teaching you how to pee standing up, how to dress buying your first jock strap. Coming outside & you had put on a bike helmet so you wouldn't get hit in the head when you tried to make a basket outside."

*Please note that I made no edits to the letter.

I Miss Being A Cat Owner

Via Sullivan via McArdle.

Seen At The Office Today

I don't know who drew this, but it tells me only one thing: I work with a drugged up, cigarette smoking, non-shower taking, asymmetrical face having, thick necked, child molester -or- stalker. [The person in the drawing, that is; not the artist who drew it].

Thoughts Regarding (Specifically) Heterosexual Marriage

A friend of mine recently told me that her friend was thinking about calling off her own wedding. She has become unsure of whether or not it would be prudent to go ahead with it all. After some conversing, her friend decided to make this declaration: "well...if we do get married, we can just get divorced if needed". It was something to that effect, and I cannot verify that that was the actual quotation. Of course, this upset my friend, who then told me, which subsequently angered me. This is the part where I make my point.

If you are going to get married, and you even contemplate getting a divorce in the future, DO NOT GET MARRIED! Yeah, homosexuals are ruining marriage. Homosexuals. I'm calling bullshit on that one right now. Couples that treat marriage as anything other than a lifelong commitment should lose the right to marry. It's good to know that if and when I find the person I want to spend the rest of my life with, based on its legal status as of now, I will not be allowed to marry that person. But my friend's friend can get married at her leisure and break that marriage at her leisure as well. Ridiculous.

Photo from mississippifamilylawblog.com.

Buy The Book

This is actually a very heartfelt, albeit sad, story.

The Abysmal State Of Higher Education

From the NYT:

"Graduate education is the Detroit of higher learning. Most graduate programs in American universities produce a product for which there is no market (candidates for teaching positions that do not exist) and develop skills for which there is diminishing demand (research in subfields within subfields and publication in journals read by no one other than a few like-minded colleagues), all at a rapidly rising cost (sometimes well over $100,000 in student loans).

"The emphasis on narrow scholarship also encourages an educational system that has become a process of cloning. Faculty members cultivate those students whose futures they envision as identical to their own pasts, even though their tenures will stand in the way of these students having futures as full professors.

"The dirty secret of higher education is that without underpaid graduate students to help in laboratories and with teaching, universities couldn’t conduct research or even instruct their growing undergraduate populations. That’s one of the main reasons we still encourage people to enroll in doctoral programs. It is simply cheaper to provide graduate students with modest stipends and adjuncts with as little as $5,000 a course — with no benefits — than it is to hire full-time professors."

Since college, I have always held the notion that all original ideas (short of the insane) have been spoken for. The kinds of theories and ideas that graduate students base their theses on are quite often mere critiques of other critiques of an original source.

"...his best student was doing his dissertation on how the medieval theologian Duns Scotus used citations."

No one is going to come up with a new perception of Plato's dialogues or Kant's metaphysics. Those were the new ideas, and now we have reached the end of original thinking (see excerpt above) -- I am fully aware that I am making a very bold (and probably controversial) declaration on intellectualism. I think science is the only field in which there can be further discoveries and inventiveness. As for most other fields of knowledge, we are merely trying to perfect what it is that we already know.

Damn You Pelosi, You Make This Difficult For Me

From Politico:

Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) promised to keep up the heat, telling reporters last week, “She and other leaders were fully briefed on all of these interrogation techniques. There’s nothing here that should surprise her.” Democrats dismiss such talk as a sideshow, arguing that the criticism of Pelosi is nothing compared with the long-term damage done to Republicans by the disclosure of Bush administration interrogation abuses.

And from CSM:

President Obama’s decision to make public four Bush-era memos authorizing “enhanced interrogation techniques” of terrorist suspects is now putting key Democrats on the spot, too. The top Republican on the House intelligence committee is calling for the release of the names all members of Congress briefed on these techniques, as well as the substance of those briefings.

I think what upsets me the most is that the democrats are firing back with a "well, torture is far worse than lying about it" tone. How have we not completely lost faith in humanity? This is not a game. This is not about winning or losing; it's about doing what is right versus what is wrong. Stop all this bullshit and get to work. There is so much that I have wanted to say with regards to all this torturing business, but it just makes my head hurt. There is nothing I can say that hasn't already been said by Andrew Sullivan. The case on whether or not to pursue prosecutions of Bush administration officials is closed here.

The Many Faces Of Jon

Whenever I dig up these relics, people always have different reactions--shock, non-belief, annoyance, laughter. I react with a sense of pride. I have come a long way--in this case, I am speaking only of my physical health and appearance (clothing choice and style included)--and I still have a long way to go; but let me note that for me to think that I still have a long way to go is, to quote someone, "delusional". Well, all that aside, here are the former faces of Jon. If you want an extremely brief history of each, read below. Click on photos for larger view.

From left to right, top row: was trying to grow a beard, was trying to be uptight, was having a good time at Starbucks (enjoying a fatty beverage, no doubt).

From left to right, middle row: was trying to grow a mustache--marchstache 2009 was better executed, was just really fat*, was tired and post-shave.

From left to right, bottom row: was hanging out on a friend's porch--those were good times, was trying to "dress nice"*, was trying to make screwdrivers in my mouth--bad decision, ultimately.

*You'll notice in these two photos, respectively, that I had a Pizza Hut box, a McDonalds bag, and a Subway bag--how did that get in there?--and a poster of Christina Aguilera, which was in no way related to me being in denial of the fact that I was/am a pseudo-flaming homosexual.

Seen At The Office Today

Can someone please explain what this means? This is a picture I took of the item in question. It's a wall calendar--somewhat obvious, I know--and it has something written on one of the days. My phone does not take very good pictures, so here is what it says:

"Don't cross off days until they're over for everyone prease?"

What does that mean? Why is the 23rd not crossed off, but the 27th and the 30th are? Is there any special reason why the note was written on Holocaust Remembrance Day? Is someone further perpetuating the stereotype that Asians say "prease" rather than "please"? These are questions that puzzle me, and I'm afraid I will never find their answers.

Said To Me At The Office Today

In reference to this:

"I can't believe it! I can't believe it!"
"Believe what?"
"That you let yourself go that much."
"I'm still big."
"You're delusional!"

It's A Sad Day For The Old Vivace Location

Slog has the photo. It's a sad day in that I have so many good memories that took place there. Luckily for me, I've already had quite a few good memories at the new location near Mercer and Broadway.

Oh Yes I Did!

I said I was going to do it. And yes, I am fully aware that I am grinning like a complete jackass.